Notable manga

Genres

Equipment

Personal Status

Area of residence

Status

Alive

Signature

Akira Hiramoto(平本 (ヒラモト) アキラ,Hiramoto Akira⃝ℹ) is a Japanese professional mangaka serialised in seinen publication Weekly Young Magazine, owned by Kodansha.[3] He was born in Okinawa in Japan in 1976, and is currently aged around 40.[4] The mangaka currently resides in the downtown area of Nerima, Tokyo.[5] Akira Hiramoto has produced multiple works while signed to Kodansha, of which the magnum opus was the long-running gag manga "Agonashi Gen to Ore Monogatari". The mangaka is currently working on two manga series as the author & artist of Me and the Devil Blues and Prison School,[6][7] the latter winning the General Manga Category award at the 37th Kodansha Awards Ceremony in 2013.[2]

Contents

Biography

Early life

In 1976, Akira Hiramoto was born in Okinawa prefecture of Japan.[4] In Hiramoto's junior high school years, the prospect of graduation into high school and part-time employment was only bearable when he drew manga as a hobby at manga cafes.[4] The high school experience of male-female division proved to become an inspiration for his future manga series.[4] In 1995, Akira Hiramoto was signed to Kodansha as a manga artist when he made his debut with the oneshot "Sono Tomodachi no Gimon Ari" in Weekly Young Magazine.[3] The freedom of his high school graduation allowed Hiramoto to forgo higher education in the pursuit of a manga career, after winning a manga contest prize for his oneshot despite a lack of confidence in his artistic skill.[4]

Manga career

Gag comedy debut

In 1998, Akira Hiramoto's first gag comedy manga and series "Agonashi Gen to Ore Monogatari" began serialisation in Weekly Young Magazine.[3] It was published in the magazine for eleven years as his most famous and long-running work. In 2003, Hiramoto's second series "Me and The Devil Blues" was serialised in Issue No. 11 of Monthly Afternoon Magazine during the original chapter run of Agonashi Gen - until the latter's completion in 2009 and its hiatus in 2008. During 2007, Hiramoto had a oneshot "Yarisugi Companion to Atashi Monogatari" serialised in Weekly Young Magazine which became a short series running for ten issues of Weekly Young Magazine with the two other series in continuation and published in one volume by Kodansha.[3] The completion of this series preceded a three-year hiatus in which Hiramoto's manga received no serialisation.

Post-hiatus

In 2011 following a three-year hiatus, Akira Hiramoto's fourth series "Prison School" was published in Issue No. 10 of Weekly Young Magazine as his then-singular manga series. The comedy manga won a Kodansha publisher award in their "General" category in 2013.[3] In an interview with journalist Okita Akira, Akira Hiramoto identified American crime thriller Cool Hand Luke as an inspiration for Prison School and the use of American filmography as reference work.[4] In the interview, he cited depicting humanity, violence, desire and a woman of strength as his primary motivation to draw manga.[4] In 2015, Akira Hiramoto's manga Prison School recieved a television anime adaptation which he provided creative input for to its production committee alongside his magazine editor Toshihiro Miura and promoted.[8] In 2014, "Me and the Devil Blues" resumed serialisation from a six-year hiatus in Young Magazine the 3rd. In December 2015, the Oricon Manga Chart designated Prison School as the 9th-top bestselling manga by volume count in Japan and the 2nd-top Kodansha bestseller.[9]

Serialised works

Manga series

Agonashi Gen to Ore Monogatari(アゴなしゲンとオレ物語,Agonashi Gen to Ore Monogatari⃝ℹ lit. The Jawless Gen's Story and Mine) - a completed long-running gag manga about low-earning middle-aged shipping company manager Gen and his employees, that ran from Merger Issue No. 5-6 of 1998 to Issue No. 27 in 2009.[10]

Me and the Devil Blues(俺と悪魔のブルーズ,Ore to Akuma no Burūzu⃝ℹ) - a popular manga about the black blues legend selling his soul to the devil and losing his family in order to become a musical legend and roam America, titled after the musician's most famous song.[11] It ran in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon Magazine from November 25, 2003 to February 25, 2008 before an indefinite hiatus.[12] This was the first manga of Hiramoto's to be published in the Northern American market, by Del Rey Manga,[13] and has begun monthly releases after hiatus in Young Magazine the Third starting in February 6, 2015.[7]

Yarisugi Companion to Atashi Monogatari(やりすぎコンパニオンとアタシ物語,Yarisugi Companion to Atashi Monogatari⃝ℹ lit. The Overboard Companion's Story and Mine) - a mature fanservice manga about an assistant at a Japanese hot spring in Tokyo. Having begun as a oneshot, it ran from Issue No. 46 in 2007 to Issue No. 8 in 2008 and was published in one volume by Kodansha.[14]

Prison School(監獄学園,Purizun Sukūru⃝ℹ) - a mature comedy manga about the enrollment and internal imprisonment of five boys at a girls school recently turned co-ed, and their struggle to stay enrolled despite resistance from its schoolgirls.[15] The manga is currently serialised starting from Issue No. 10 in 2011, having been awarded a publisher award from Kodansha and received an anime adaptation by JC Staff.[6]

Tantou-san Manga(担当さん漫画,lit. Mr Manga Editor⃝ℹ) - a manga chapter special from the interview anthology "Manga Editors" (漫画編集者,"Manga Editors"⃝ℹ) by Shunsuke Kimura on the editorial aspects of the Japanese manga industry.[19]

Neo Parasyte(ネオ寄生獣,Neo Kiseijuu⃝ℹ) - the first short-story single chapter oneshot based on manga series Kiseijuu. The series is a collaboration with other mangaka to promote the upcoming Parasyte: A Maxim anime.[20] It ran in 2014 Issue No. 9 of Monthly Afternoon Magazine, with other authors such as Fairy Tail's Hiro Mashima and Peacemaker's Ryoji Minagawa producing other chapters.[21]